A long time ago it was common for my football coach to get complaints from me and my teammates during our summer two-a-days.  Coach’s phrase was “go hard or go home.”  At one point he got tired of saying it and had t-shirts made with the saying broadcasted in plain view.  Now that I think about it, that saying relates to ice fishing too. I’m no weatherman, and while the Groundhog called for an early…

When you speak with most tournament ice anglers, they share stories of growing up in the ice belt, setting up tip-ups for pike, and sitting in a converted camper trailer with their fathers, grandfathers or uncles jigging and listening to fish tales.  Although I did ice fish as a young child, my story is not quite the same.  I certainly did not fish often enough as a child for it to play a major role in…

As a kid, some of my favorite toys possessed the magical ability to glow in the dark.  Guess not much has changed. Glow in the dark lures can be found in a variety of forms from soft plastics to spoons.  One of my favorite methods to fish is to cast a glowing spoon just before sunrise at the mouth of a tributary of Lake Erie and brace for a steelhead to hammer it. It was…

There is an old saying that “sometimes less is more.”  However with smelt, this is not one of those times.  When smelt fishing, “more is more.” Smelt are a relatively weak fish, which might reach an immense six inches or so.  Even catching three at a time, I have had aquatic vegetation that fought harder.  Still, this is strangely fun and I cannot wait to take the kids smelt fishing. I have used augers to…

Every year, the Fall and Winter holidays seem to begin earlier and earlier.  Part of me likes to keep the events separate while another part of me sort of likes the fact that everyone is happy for a long period of time.  One part that I always dread is January 2nd, because on that day the celebrations come to an abrupt end. For me, they come to an end because I never seem to have…

I really do live in a log cabin in the mountains of Colorado.  This is the scene I woke up to this morning.  Sure, the snow is pretty, especially around the holidays (when we get a foot in May, it really isn’t that neat anymore), and we need the moisture.  The whiter it is in winter up here, the better the fishing will be next summer. But if you like fishing as much as I…

Some of the coldest situations I’ve ever been in involve fishing in the winter.  Let’s face it—while winter fishing can offer interesting challenges and opportunities, it can also be downright chilly.  The mix of moisture with low air temperatures is the perfect recipe for hypothermia and frostbite.  And those situations are far more serious than feeling a bit uncomfortable.  Unless you take the right precautions, they can literally threaten life and limb. There are a…